Chapter 346: The Shadow Clone Uprising
"Taking off… is something positive and uplifting."
"Positive and uplifting? Naruto has always been pretty positive and upbeat, hasn't he?"
That was true.
Shiromo thought to himself that this kind of thing was better left unexplained.
Earlier, when he collected Rin's "Dedication Blessing", he could still justify it by saying that medical ninjas see no difference between genders. But if he explained this now, it would just get awkward.
"Naruto has already reconciled with the Nine-Tails for quite some time now, but he still hasn't mastered the Tailed Beast Bomb. That's just a matter of technique."
Shiromo suddenly changed the subject.
Kushina was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood what he meant.
Back when she had been reincarnated through the Impure World Reincarnation, she hadn't gone to see Naruto right away. At first, she simply wasn't mentally prepared. Later, she worried that if she met him, the memories between the Yin and Yang halves of the Nine-Tails might synchronize and interfere with Naruto's growth.
Now that Shiromo told her Naruto had fully reconciled with the Nine-Tails, it meant she could finally go see him.
At the same time, he was also telling her what "taking off" meant, she would understand once she saw it for herself.
"Alright then. Rin, go with the director for a proper check-up and get some rest. I'll go with Shiromo for a bit."
After a brief hesitation, Kushina made her decision.
She couldn't keep running away.
Shiromo and Kushina found a Flying Thunder God teleportation operator and returned to the desert of Sunagakure.
To observe Naruto first, they didn't appear nearby right away.
Instead, Shiromo took Kushina into the sky and approached Naruto's location from above.
From high up, they could see a large number of shadow clones gathered where Naruto was.
To maintain his vigilance, each shadow clone would rise to a certain extent, then stop and switch out with another clone.
The reasoning was simple.
If he wanted to maintain sharp perception, he couldn't fully "take off." He had to remain in that transitional state.
Once he fully "took off", he could enter Sage Mode, but the problem was that the "take off" ability would then go on cooldown for a period of time. During that window, he would have a fatal vulnerability.
If Shiromo chose to exploit that moment, Naruto would have no way to counter it.
Moreover, of his three chances, only the last one remained. There was no room for error.
Naruto could only stay on maximum alert.
As time passed, every additional shadow clone on the field indicated that Naruto had aborted another "take off" attempt.
A full day went by. Although Naruto's original body hadn't done much, only maintaining the shadow clones, it was still exhausted and eventually fell asleep.
The other shadow clones were assigned to stand watch. A newly created clone was in the process of "taking off", maintaining vigilance against time erasure.
"What are they even doing?"
Kushina looked at Shiromo in confusion.
There were too many shadow clones below, and they were too far away for her to notice the special one at first glance.
Shiromo was about to point it out, but after seeing something in his "epitaph visions", he changed his mind.
"No rush. You'll understand in a moment."
Down below.
One of Naruto's shadow clones complained loudly, "Why does he get to sleep so comfortably while we have to stand watch for him?"
"Exactly! Why does he get to take off comfortably, while we have to stop in the end?"
Another clone looked equally displeased.
"Well, he does have his difficulties. As the original…"
"How much did he pay you? Why are you always speaking up for him? Is he your king or something?"
One clone tried to defend Naruto, only to be angrily interrupted by the others.
"If you can tolerate him sleeping here so freely, then allow me to self-destruct and disappear."
One clone pulled out a kunai and pointed it at his own neck.
"Big bro, don't be rash! If we're going to disappear anyway, we might as well get some payback first."
"Yeah! Is the original really that much more noble than us? Let's beat him up!"
"No, no, we should…"
The shadow clones began planning an uprising, debating ideas like "Are we not just as worthy as the original?" and "If we're going to die, why not die rebelling?"
"Huh? What exactly is Naruto doing…?"
Watching the clones below, Kushina clutched her head in shock.
Even though she couldn't see the details clearly from this distance, she could already guess what was happening.
Under the original's orders, none of the shadow clones were allowed to fully "take off". It was extremely uncomfortable for them.
Now that they had decided to revolt, of course they would eat his food, wear his clothes, and stop following his rules altogether.
So the clones disobeyed Naruto's orders and forcibly began "taking off".
Soon, the shadow clones completed their "take off."
In his sleep, Naruto dreamed that Konoha was holding a water festival. He and Kiba were spraying each other with water guns.
Then he suddenly woke up.
He found himself tightly restrained by his own shadow clones. One of them was even doing something odd. Seeing Naruto awake, the clone spoke resentfully:
"Didn't you not want to take off? Well, we all took off, so now you have to take off too!"
"Huh?!"
Naruto never expected that overworking his shadow clones would lead to outright rebellion. He struggled, trying to dispel them, but he failed.
The clones that had completed "take off" had all entered Sage Mode. Their strength was far beyond what he could handle now.
Five minutes later.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
All the shadow clones dispersed.
Naruto lay on the ground, utterly exhausted and despairing.
All their memories and fatigue flooded into his mind at once.
The only good news was that certain… things the clones had left on him had also disappeared.
At least he didn't have to clean up.
"Kurama, why didn't you help me?!"
Naruto asked the Nine-Tails inside him in sorrow.
If Kurama had lent him power, breaking free from a few Sage Mode clones using the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode would have been easy.
"You idiot. Don't forget, your shadow clones also carry my power. If I lend it to you, do you think they wouldn't get it too?"
Although the Nine-Tails had deliberately refused, it still sounded completely justified.
"Someone's there?!"
Naruto, still lying down, was about to say something else when he suddenly became alert and turned his gaze to the side.
Kushina had already been thrown down from the sky by Shiromo.
She looked at Naruto with a complicated expression.
For a moment, she didn't know what to say.
"And you are?"
Although Naruto had been forcibly "taken off", he had also entered Sage Mode because of it. Realizing the person in front of him wasn't Shiromo but a stranger, he became confused.
"I'm your mother."
Kushina answered decisively, without any hesitation.
"?!"
Naruto's pupils trembled violently. He quickly covered his backside and took several steps back, putting distance between them.
He still remembered the last guy who opened with "I'm your father", Kimimaro, who, right after saying that, immediately used Ten-Finger Piercing Bullets: Thousand Years of Death… and even a drill!
(End of this chapter)